Academic Problems
In the visual-spatial-motor area, areas of primary deficits are:
• Tactile perception, such as finger agnosia;
• Discrimination and recognition of visual details;
• Organization of visual stimuli;
• Tactile and visual memory;
• Complex psychomotor tasks that require the crossmodal integration of visual perception and motor output, such as putting puzzles together, solving mazes;
In the area of verbal language;
• The children are either average or above average in verbal language skills;
• They have good syntax and good pragmatics;
• They have problems with prosody, they tend to speak in monotone, or with a "sing-song" voice;
• They may reverse pronouns at an early age, but these clear up with maturation;
• They have good memories and manifest rote memory verbalizations that makes them look much smarter than they actually are;
• Their concepts lack preciseness. Although they appear sophisticated there is a shallowness to the content of their expressions. A child may use a vocabulary that seems advanced for his or her age, but the communications are not always well connected, and the content appears superficial;
• Their problem with concept formation limits their capacity to reason, analyze and synthesize materials;
In the academic areas, they have:
• Poor handwriting;
• Deficient skills in arithmetic;
• Their reading comprehension is not on a par with their verbal skills, although they are good readers;
• Their reading comprehension drops, as they move to higher grades. Complex material becomes much harder to grasp and concepts are harder to understand;
• The cannot organize a narrative to pick out the main points from supporting details, the relevant from irrelevant;
• They have great difficulty with tasks required by art classes.
In school they also have problems with:
• Attention;
• Exploratory behavior;
• Dealing with novel materials, and adjusting to new solution;
• Reading between the lines, making inference, and understanding the double meaning of expressions;
• Giving a narrative account of en event, they grasp one aspect of the total picture and miss the broader gestalt. Consequently, when they are asked to report on an event they give an account that appears disconnected and devoid of feeling. It is very difficult to reconstruct what happened from their reports;
• Problem solving; and,
• Conforming with expected behavior.
The social-emotional profile.
• The area of affective communication is problematic for children with NVLD.
• In the receptive area:
• They appear unable to decode prosodic or vocal intonations;
• They also have difficulty reading facial expressions. They are unable to decode the emotional message conveyed by people’s faces, and
• They are unable to read bodily gestures.
In the expressive area:
• They do not use vocal intonations. They either speak in a flat monotone or with a "sing-song" voice:
• It is difficult to read their mood from their facial expressions. It is hard to tell whether they are really happy or unhappy.
• They do not sue body gestures in speaking. They seem wooden and constricted;
In the processing area:
• They may have problems in the area of decoding affective states, or in the area of visual processing;
• They respond to affect laden situations with anxiety, withdrawal or sadness;
• They have problems in modulating or regulating certain affects;
• They loose control and have temper tantrum, when frustrated;
• They respond to most feelings with generalized excitement that is unfocused and lacking in content;
• They appear to have no compassion or empathy for others;
• They appear not to have the same feelings about events and people that their peers are capable of having.
Their functioning in social situations is often problematic:
• They interact quite well with adults, but not as well with peers. This may be because adults are more predictable in their responses and can be engaged verbally;
• They respond more nonverbally and are more erratic in their responses to their peers;
• They are unable to decode social cues involved in "reading" other people’s body language, facial expression and vocal intonations;
• They are inept in social situations. Grasping the subtle nuances of a social situation is difficult;
• Their eye contact (gaze) seems unnatural, they seldom make solid eye contact;
• They lack a sense of humor. They do not know when they are being teased;
• They interpret concretely colloquialisms or metaphorical expressions.
• They lack basic social skills:
• Sometimes, they are taken to be rude although they are not consciously being disrespectful;
• They are overly familiar with strangers. They will start a conversation with strangers as though they were old friends. They will ask personal questions too quickly. They do not respect privacy that we presume others to need. They share personal facts too quickly giving intimate details to strangers;
• They do not understand the physical aspects of social boundaries. Their sense of body in space does not allow them to respect the usual social distances, such as the culturally determined conversational distance of physical intimate closeness and distance;
• With peers, their play is disruptive, they appear unable to negotiate social interchanges with other kids.
http://www.nldline.com/palombo.htm
• Tactile perception, such as finger agnosia;
• Discrimination and recognition of visual details;
• Organization of visual stimuli;
• Tactile and visual memory;
• Complex psychomotor tasks that require the crossmodal integration of visual perception and motor output, such as putting puzzles together, solving mazes;
In the area of verbal language;
• The children are either average or above average in verbal language skills;
• They have good syntax and good pragmatics;
• They have problems with prosody, they tend to speak in monotone, or with a "sing-song" voice;
• They may reverse pronouns at an early age, but these clear up with maturation;
• They have good memories and manifest rote memory verbalizations that makes them look much smarter than they actually are;
• Their concepts lack preciseness. Although they appear sophisticated there is a shallowness to the content of their expressions. A child may use a vocabulary that seems advanced for his or her age, but the communications are not always well connected, and the content appears superficial;
• Their problem with concept formation limits their capacity to reason, analyze and synthesize materials;
In the academic areas, they have:
• Poor handwriting;
• Deficient skills in arithmetic;
• Their reading comprehension is not on a par with their verbal skills, although they are good readers;
• Their reading comprehension drops, as they move to higher grades. Complex material becomes much harder to grasp and concepts are harder to understand;
• The cannot organize a narrative to pick out the main points from supporting details, the relevant from irrelevant;
• They have great difficulty with tasks required by art classes.
In school they also have problems with:
• Attention;
• Exploratory behavior;
• Dealing with novel materials, and adjusting to new solution;
• Reading between the lines, making inference, and understanding the double meaning of expressions;
• Giving a narrative account of en event, they grasp one aspect of the total picture and miss the broader gestalt. Consequently, when they are asked to report on an event they give an account that appears disconnected and devoid of feeling. It is very difficult to reconstruct what happened from their reports;
• Problem solving; and,
• Conforming with expected behavior.
The social-emotional profile.
• The area of affective communication is problematic for children with NVLD.
• In the receptive area:
• They appear unable to decode prosodic or vocal intonations;
• They also have difficulty reading facial expressions. They are unable to decode the emotional message conveyed by people’s faces, and
• They are unable to read bodily gestures.
In the expressive area:
• They do not use vocal intonations. They either speak in a flat monotone or with a "sing-song" voice:
• It is difficult to read their mood from their facial expressions. It is hard to tell whether they are really happy or unhappy.
• They do not sue body gestures in speaking. They seem wooden and constricted;
In the processing area:
• They may have problems in the area of decoding affective states, or in the area of visual processing;
• They respond to affect laden situations with anxiety, withdrawal or sadness;
• They have problems in modulating or regulating certain affects;
• They loose control and have temper tantrum, when frustrated;
• They respond to most feelings with generalized excitement that is unfocused and lacking in content;
• They appear to have no compassion or empathy for others;
• They appear not to have the same feelings about events and people that their peers are capable of having.
Their functioning in social situations is often problematic:
• They interact quite well with adults, but not as well with peers. This may be because adults are more predictable in their responses and can be engaged verbally;
• They respond more nonverbally and are more erratic in their responses to their peers;
• They are unable to decode social cues involved in "reading" other people’s body language, facial expression and vocal intonations;
• They are inept in social situations. Grasping the subtle nuances of a social situation is difficult;
• Their eye contact (gaze) seems unnatural, they seldom make solid eye contact;
• They lack a sense of humor. They do not know when they are being teased;
• They interpret concretely colloquialisms or metaphorical expressions.
• They lack basic social skills:
• Sometimes, they are taken to be rude although they are not consciously being disrespectful;
• They are overly familiar with strangers. They will start a conversation with strangers as though they were old friends. They will ask personal questions too quickly. They do not respect privacy that we presume others to need. They share personal facts too quickly giving intimate details to strangers;
• They do not understand the physical aspects of social boundaries. Their sense of body in space does not allow them to respect the usual social distances, such as the culturally determined conversational distance of physical intimate closeness and distance;
• With peers, their play is disruptive, they appear unable to negotiate social interchanges with other kids.
http://www.nldline.com/palombo.htm